Mayor de Blasio Expanding Living Wage Law With Executive Order

Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to continue his crusade to raise the city’s living wage as high as he is tall on Tuesday by signing an executive order. Under the expansion, the law will cover more workers and raise the hourly wage up to $13.13 from $11.90 formany.

The law, as passed in 2012, covered only a thin sliver of employers who received more than $1 million in economic development aid. Employees who did not receive benefits, such as health insurance, from those employers received an extra $1.50 an hour to help cover those expenses. (Those who did receive benefits are currently making $10.30 an hour and will now make$11.50.)

In addition to raising the wage, de Blasio’s promised expansion will include more workers under the law by requiring commercial tenants of subsidized projects to adhere to the same standards. (It will also end the exemption for future Hudson Yards developments.) Since only about 1,200 people were covered under the initial scope of the law, the executive order will dramatically increase the number of beneficiaries — hopeful estimates say that 18,000 workers will be covered by the living wage law in fiveyears.

According to the New York Times, the change means an annual increase of about $10,000 for the many food-service and retail employees who will beimpacted.

Next up: bringing the citywide minimum wage up to the living wage. Staytuned.